i am a little surprised that the president fresh off the election is saying that the speaker of the house is supposed to lead the country. he is supposed to lead, his party is the more difficult to get legislation through. so for him to say in the last 24 hours before the tax increases that it's up to john boehner to fix things surprises me and disappoints me a great deal. >> eric: obviously, you are faulting, in your view, a lack of presidential leadership? not only faulting, i think a lot of folks are not focused, i have believed that the president wants to go over the cliff. peter orszag, telling the president 3 and 4 years that the tax rates needed to go up. howard dean was making the rounds for months, saying that tax rates need to go up. nancy pelosi thinks the tax rates should go up on everybody. does the president have the political will to go against his own party? what we are seeing so far, he is not. we read his first offer, when he sat down with mr. boehner, mr. boehner said here's $800 billion for revenue and what do i get for that? the president allegedly said, that's for fr